I don't think this blog would be complete without some references to my family. Ethan, my three year old, is obsessed with chess now. Every time he sees me playing on the computer, he asks me what the pieces are. He now knows all of the pieces' names by sight. And did I mention he's only three! Today I started teaching him how the different pieces move.
Anatoly Karpov, one of the greatest chess masters to ever live, apparently learned to play chess at age four. Ethan's got a jump on him!
In other news, I learned that a lot of younger players that go on to become masters take about four years after starting to take the time to seriously study the game before reaching an elite level of play. Obviously there are outliers, but the bell curve shows that four years is a solid median timeframe.
Chess is a lot tougher than I imagined. I thought that I would spend a few weeks studying it and practicing and be ready to play the best. But it's going to take a lot longer than that. At first this frustrated me, but I am excited now. I think that this is going to be a very challenging journey, but I love challenges and I love bettering myself.
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